Cataclysm: TLG Launcher

A native macOS launcher and update manager for Cataclysm: The Last Generation.

• Installs and updates TLG from GitHub releases (SHA-256 verified, atomic activation, previous version kept for rollback).
• Never touches the canonical TLG user directory during updates; takes a full backup of it before each one.
• First-class font picker for interface, map and overmap typefaces, with import into the persistent user font directory and live preview.
• Colour scheme picker for the preset palettes the game ships in data/raw/color_themes, with a live preview of each.
• Tileset picker for map, overmap and distant zoom, with sprite-sheet previews and folder install into the persistent user gfx directory.
• Sound pane: soundpack picker, volume sliders, and soundpack install into the persistent user sound directory.
• Bundles the TLG Hitchhiker's Guide, served to a WKWebView from a loopback-only HTTP server.
• Generates the guide's game data locally from the installed build (same format as RenechCDDA/tlg-data, verified equivalent), so the guide matches the version you play and works offline; falls back to the remote data otherwise.
• Backups and restore, with safety copies before every restore.
• Notifies when a newer launcher release is available (a banner linking to the release — no self-modifying auto-update).

See Docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for design.

Installing

Download the DMG from Releases and drag Cataclysm TLG Launcher to Applications. The app is ad-hoc signed rather than notarised, so macOS blocks the first launch. Once only:

• macOS 15 or later: open the app (it will be blocked), then go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about the launcher, and click Open Anyway.
• macOS 14: right-click the app and choose Open.

Or from a terminal: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Cataclysm TLG Launcher.app".

The launcher talks only to GitHub (release listings and downloads); there is no telemetry.

Building

Requires macOS 14+ and the Xcode Command Line Tools (Swift 6+). No Xcode needed.

swift build                      # compile
swift run TLGLauncherChecks      # run the check suite
Scripts/build-guide.sh [path]    # build the guide frontend and stage its dist/
Scripts/make-app.sh              # assemble the .app bundle (ad-hoc signed)
Scripts/make-dmg.sh              # package the app as a drag-to-install DMG

swift run TLGLauncher also works for development; the guide is picked up from GuideDist/ in the working directory.

The bundled guide is built from a checkout of the TLG Hitchhiker's Guide frontend (tlg-guide), expected as a sibling directory or passed as the argument to build-guide.sh. Without it, make-app.sh --skip-guide builds the app with the Guide tab empty.

Credits

Cataclysm: The Last Generation is created by worm girl and contributors — cataclysmtlg.com, Cataclysm-TLG on GitHub. The artwork shown in the launcher is from the TLG project. This launcher is an independent fan tool, not an official TLG release.

The bundled guide is a TLG adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Cataclysm by nornagon (GPL-3.0; adapted source at jalexspringer/tlg-guide), with game data in the format of RenechCDDA/tlg-data.

Licence

CC BY-SA 4.0, matching the game's own CC-BY-SA licensing (the repository redistributes TLG artwork, which stays under the game project's terms and attribution). The guide staged into built apps remains GPL-3.0, per its upstream.